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<H2>Computer Science Department News Summary</H2>
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<h5>Aug 1996</h5>

(This news was taken from the College of Science and Math Newsletter 1996, 
Department News section.  Welcome to those of you who found us through that
medium.)  Each
<!WA0><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/faculty/index.html">faculty member</a>
has a home page as do some of the
<!WA1><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/students/index.html">students</a>
.  Our current brochures and other documents also are available.  We encourage
all
<!WA2><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/alumni/index.html">alumni</a>
to place their own Home Pages here as well.  We plan to add more
features and information in coming months.  Check back every once in a while!
<p>
    The past year was exciting and productive for the department. As a beta test site for Intel products, the department
    works with Intel in the area of distance conferencing. and we recently began
    building closer relationships with Great Plains Software and Cargill.<p>
    The introduction of closed student laboratories into our starting course sequence received excellent reviews and has
    helped many students in those courses build better and more satisfying foundations for success in Computer
    Science. If you have comments or suggestions on the undergraduate curriculum. please let us know.<p>
    The graduate programs continue to be in high demand with six doctoral graduates and nine master's graduates this
    year. Plans to expand distance education offerings continue. Possibilities include
     offering the doctoral degree through a variety of media including computer conferencing, e-mail and CD-ROM.<p>
    Department faculty continue to publish widely More than 30 papers appeared in 1995 in a wide variety of journals and
    conference proceedings. The department's first major fundraising project was a success. Every faculty member
    contributed to raise our endowment for undergraduate student scholarships to nearly $17.000.<p>
<!WA3><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rvetter/index.html">Ron Vetter</a>,
<!WA4><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~perrizo/index.html">Bill Perrizo</a>,
<!WA5><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~juell/index.html">Paul Juell</a>,
<!WA6><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~soloviev/index.html">Valery Soloviev</a>,
and
<!WA7><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Ken Nygard</a>
    began an NSF-funded project to develop a state-of-the art high speed
    networking laboratory around an ATM switch.
<!WA8><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~perrizo/index.html">Perrizo,</a> and
<!WA9><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rvetter/index.html">Vetter</a>
    continued their work on a multi-state project to build resource centers
    accessible by the citizens of the upper Midwest, and Perrizo serves as the
    half-time university dean of research while
<!WA10><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~rvetter/index.html">Vetter</a>
is an associate editor to IEEE Computer.<p>

<!WA11><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>,
<!WA12><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~juell/index.html">Juell</a>,
<!WA13><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~hex/index.html">Xudong He</a>, and
<!WA14><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~soloviev/index.html">Valery Soloviev</a>
    continue their funded research projects, and
<!WA15><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~ubhaya/index.html">Vasant Ubhaya</a>
    conducts
    technical research with faculty members from Pennsylvania State University, Texas A and M and University of
    Waterloo.
<!WA16><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~ubhaya/index.html">Vasant Ubhaya</a>
    also organized and chaired invited sessions and presented papers at conferences at the
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Texas A and M.
<!WA17><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~kmagel/index.html">Ken Magel</a>
    continued his research on object-oriented testing
    methods with several graduate students.<p>
<!WA18><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~gammill/index.html">Bob Gammill</a>
    continued to push the department toward low-cost. easily used. UNIX-based local area networks.
<!WA19><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~jmartin/index.html">John Martin</a>
    completed the revision for a second edition of his book on descrete structures.
<!WA20><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~erickson/index.html">Bruce Erickson</a> and
<!WA21><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~pavicic/index.html">Mark Pavicic</a>
    are pioneering the efforts of the department to introduce C++ in  the undergraduate curriculum. 
<!WA22><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~juell/index.html">Juell</a>,
<!WA23><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    and several other
    faculty are researching World Wide Web activities.<P>
    The department's web address is
<!WA24><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/">www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu</a>.<p>
    
<H3>William Perrizo receives grant for high speed database study</H3><p>
<!WA25><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~perrizo/index.html">Bill Perrizo</a>,
    professor of computer science, will research client/server databases on high speed networks with
    his $667.118 grant. "Military decision makers depend more and more on computerized management information
    systems both for gathering
    data, and for making sure that data is secure at multiple levels,"
<!WA26><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~perrizo/index.html">Perrizo</a>
    says.<p>
    He says the grant will allow him to develop and evaluate methods for distributed
     client/server database management over high speed fiber optical networks.<p>
    
<H3>Ken Nygard track ND school districts</H3><p>
    North Dakota's schools range from one room schoolhouses in the far west to sprawling. growing schools like Grand
    Forks Red River High School in the east. In rural areas where population is declining, there are mergers and
    consolidations every year. School districts are in a constant state of flux.<p>
    For many years district boundaries were recorded in legal documents and penciled onto various maps by district
    superintendents. Consistency was rare and it was difficult to obtain statewide information concerning school district
    boundaries. The situation was helped significantly with the development of School Maps, a geographic information
    system software.<P>
    NDSU computer science professor
<!WA27><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Ken Nygard</a>
    and his assistants developed School Maps software
    from scratch, and first used it to study transportation issues. That led to mapping school districts and now is
    expanding to include a wide variety of analyses.<p>
    Work with the school districts remains a top priority.
<!WA28><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>,
 research associate
<!WA29><a href="http://ndsun.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/www/haugrud"> Mike Haugrud</a>,
and their research
    assistants update the districts once a year, usually by July 1. No small job according to research assistant
<!WA30><a href="http://ndsun.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/www/mgreene"> Michael Greene</a>
. He was in charge of organizing nine filing boxes full
    of correspondence. proposals and legal documents regarding mergers and changes throughout the state before the
    map was adjusted for the 1995-96 school year.<p>
<!WA31><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    says one reason  School Maps is important is the way it puts school issues on a quantitative level rather
    than an emotional one. "People in North Dakota are enormously sensitive to this issue."
<!WA32><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    says in regard to school mergers and closures. "Schools are considered the lifeblood of a town. Without
    them people feel the town would wither.
    With the realization that mergers are a necessary action at times, research assistant Jocher Layher, a Fulbright
    scholar from Germany, is developing a program that will measure the efficiency of school districts.
<!WA33><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    says the
    program has many possible uses. A similar program in North Carolina reduced the number of school buses in the
    state by several hundred within the first year of use. "It's a controversial program. but you can see the benefit of it."<p>
<!WA34><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    and his colleagues are proud of the way School Maps can use simple algebraic equations to make all kinds
    of combinations on the maps. Haugrud can. for instance, subtract the 1991 school census from the 1993 census
    and determine which districts are losing and which are gaining in population. The districts are color coded to make
    the visual even clearer.<p>
    This kind of presentation of information is a tremendous improvement over the past when a page full of numbers and
    statistics was the only output easily available. The bright colors and combinations of School Maps are much more
    effective to lawmakers, citizens and school boards.<p>
   "It's a great tool for analyzing trends. We can define the difference between new and old data and display that in a
    map. bar graph or a pie chart."
<!WA35><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    says. These capabilities were used in the last two legislative sessions as
    statewide education issues were addressed.<p>
    The public can access and download School Maps from its website at
<!WA36><a href="http://ndsun.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/www/SMAPS/index.html">ndsun.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/www/SMAPS/</a>.
    The
    North Dakota Department of Public Instruction works in cooperation with
<!WA37><a href="http://www.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/~nygard/index.html">Nygard</a>
    and has instituted School Maps in
    their Bismarck offices The program also is accessible from their web site.<p>
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